Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Former safe house in Bilal Town, Pakistan.
The three-story residence stood behind high concrete walls crowned with barbed wire and featured two entrance gates. Inside the perimeter, vegetable gardens and livestock allowed the occupants to live with minimal dependence on outside resources.
American special forces carried out an operation here on May 2, 2011, during which Osama bin Laden was killed. The Pakistani government ordered the compound demolished in February 2012.
Neighbours called it Waziristan Haveli, after Waziristan, the region the owner came from, and haveli, Urdu for mansion. The men of the house shopped at Rasheed's corner store a minute's walk away, buying food for about ten people, sweets and soft drinks for the children, and bread from a local bakery. Children were schooled in Arabic in a first-floor room with a whiteboard and textbooks.
The site no longer exists after authorities removed it completely from the location. The surrounding area in Bilal Town is an ordinary residential neighborhood without special markers or indications.
The compound stood less than a kilometer from the Pakistan Military Academy Kakul, which later sparked diplomatic tensions between Pakistan and the United States. The unusual construction with minimal windows and towering exterior walls drew little attention from neighbors for years.
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